American Gothic (Grant Wood, 1930)

American Gothic skyrocketed to fame after the Art Institute of Chicago purchased it for just $300 in 1930, now considered a priceless icon of American rural identity. The oil painting, featuring a pitchfork-holding farmer and a woman outside a Carpenter Gothic house, has inspired over 70,000 parodies. Its subjects (Wood's sister and dentist) symbolize resilience in the Great Depression era, and it outpaces The Birth of Venus in pop culture references, appearing in movies, ads, and memes across the globe.